Free music program causes 'Ruckus'
Crack-down on illegal downloading could have some benefits too
All it takes is a few clicks of a mouse. One to open Limewire. Another to search for a song. One last click to select a file to download, and just a moment later, a free, illegal song is downloaded. Sure, it’s easy, but students at Elon will soon find downloading such content much harder and riskier than ever.
On Aug. 14, President Bush signed the Higher Education Opportunity Act, legislation that reauthorizes current higher education laws. Though the primary purpose of the act is to make college more affordable for all Americans, it also includes provisions regarding file sharing on college campuses.
A memo from EDUCAUSE, a non-profit organization that encourages the use of technology to support higher education, the American Council on Education, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and the Association of American Universities, explained the new stipulations.
“Two of these provisions are designed to reduce illegal uploading and downloading of copyrighted works through peer-to-peer [P2P] file sharing on campus networks,” the memo said. “Institutions must take their obligations under the act seriously and make good faith effort to comply as they would with any new federal law. But the law is unclear in certain respects, and ambiguities will need to be clarified through the regulatory process.”
While such vagueness has made the future of file sharing unclear at Elon, certainties do exist. According to Chris Fulkerson, assistant vice president for technology, the university will be taking many steps to reduce the amount of illegal file-sharing on campus.
“Once a year minimum, we must educate the population on downloading, file sharing and consequences,” he said.
The school is also reducing bandwidth, the speed at which data can be transferred, to sites and programs that are popular for illegal file-sharing, such as Limewire.
“Think of it as a pipe,” Fulkerson said. “It’s the amount of information that can go through.”
By reducing bandwidth to such sites, students will find downloading content extremely slow and difficult.
Fulkerson said that under the act, the school must also keep track of Internet Protocol addresses (IP addresses) on the campus network. Each individual computer on a network is assigned a unique IP address, which is represented numerically and tracks the user’s activity.
“The act is going to tell us how long we keep network logs so that we can trace transactions such as downloading music to a certain person,” Fulkerson said. The school can then be contacted and asked to provide the identity of individuals who illegally download music.
Fulkerson said that over the course of one day last week, the Recording Industry Association of America contacted the university about “six violations where someone on campus is illegally sharing copyrighted music.”
“They expect us to tell them who it is and how to contact that person,” he said.
In an effort to combat illegal downloading on campus, the school is considering providing the program Ruckus or another similar site for students, which would allow them to legally download music, television shows and movies for free. Users are required to log in to the program and do not have to be on campus to use it.
According the program’s Web site, college students can enjoy “unlimited free downloads from a music library of over 2.5 million tracks and over 4,000 movies and TV programs. Ruckus music downloads are 100 percent legal, virus free and available to anyone who has a valid school [.edu] e-mail address.”
The university was approached to offer the service in the past, but for a fee to be borne by either the school or its students. Recently, Ruckus has entered an agreement with the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, and Elon can now provide the program to students for free. Advertisements will provide revenue for the program.
Though students can download music for free, they cannot burn tracks to CDs or transfer them to mp3 players. As such, some users of the program recognize its drawbacks.
John Burton, a freshman at the University of Miami, where Ruckus is provided for students, said that while he does use the program he does not think that it stops many students from illegally downloading music.
“Just because of the fact that you can’t burn it to CDs, it kind of defeats the purpose,” he said.
Blake Qua, a freshman at Elon, said she thinks Ruckus is a good idea and that Elon students would use it. Though she uses iTunes to download music, she thinks that those who download music illegally would recognize the benefits of Ruckus.
“I think that if I did use Limewire, I would use [Ruckus] instead,” Qua said. “It sounds like a much more efficient and safer way to download music than doing it illegally.”
Ruckus: The Facts
PROS:
• Free downloads of 2.5 million tracks, 4,000 TV shows and movies
• Don’t have to be on campus to access it
• 100% legal, virus free and
available to anyone who has a valid school e-mail address
• Curbs illegal downloading
CONS:
• Can’t burn to CDs
• Can’t transfer to mp3 players
• Won’t stop all illegal downloading
• User name and login required
On Aug. 14, President Bush signed the Higher Education Opportunity Act, legislation that reauthorizes current higher education laws. Though the primary purpose of the act is to make college more affordable for all Americans, it also includes provisions regarding file sharing on college campuses.
A memo from EDUCAUSE, a non-profit organization that encourages the use of technology to support higher education, the American Council on Education, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and the Association of American Universities, explained the new stipulations.
“Two of these provisions are designed to reduce illegal uploading and downloading of copyrighted works through peer-to-peer [P2P] file sharing on campus networks,” the memo said. “Institutions must take their obligations under the act seriously and make good faith effort to comply as they would with any new federal law. But the law is unclear in certain respects, and ambiguities will need to be clarified through the regulatory process.”
While such vagueness has made the future of file sharing unclear at Elon, certainties do exist. According to Chris Fulkerson, assistant vice president for technology, the university will be taking many steps to reduce the amount of illegal file-sharing on campus.
“Once a year minimum, we must educate the population on downloading, file sharing and consequences,” he said.
The school is also reducing bandwidth, the speed at which data can be transferred, to sites and programs that are popular for illegal file-sharing, such as Limewire.
“Think of it as a pipe,” Fulkerson said. “It’s the amount of information that can go through.”
By reducing bandwidth to such sites, students will find downloading content extremely slow and difficult.
Fulkerson said that under the act, the school must also keep track of Internet Protocol addresses (IP addresses) on the campus network. Each individual computer on a network is assigned a unique IP address, which is represented numerically and tracks the user’s activity.
“The act is going to tell us how long we keep network logs so that we can trace transactions such as downloading music to a certain person,” Fulkerson said. The school can then be contacted and asked to provide the identity of individuals who illegally download music.
Fulkerson said that over the course of one day last week, the Recording Industry Association of America contacted the university about “six violations where someone on campus is illegally sharing copyrighted music.”
“They expect us to tell them who it is and how to contact that person,” he said.
In an effort to combat illegal downloading on campus, the school is considering providing the program Ruckus or another similar site for students, which would allow them to legally download music, television shows and movies for free. Users are required to log in to the program and do not have to be on campus to use it.
According the program’s Web site, college students can enjoy “unlimited free downloads from a music library of over 2.5 million tracks and over 4,000 movies and TV programs. Ruckus music downloads are 100 percent legal, virus free and available to anyone who has a valid school [.edu] e-mail address.”
The university was approached to offer the service in the past, but for a fee to be borne by either the school or its students. Recently, Ruckus has entered an agreement with the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, and Elon can now provide the program to students for free. Advertisements will provide revenue for the program.
Though students can download music for free, they cannot burn tracks to CDs or transfer them to mp3 players. As such, some users of the program recognize its drawbacks.
John Burton, a freshman at the University of Miami, where Ruckus is provided for students, said that while he does use the program he does not think that it stops many students from illegally downloading music.
“Just because of the fact that you can’t burn it to CDs, it kind of defeats the purpose,” he said.
Blake Qua, a freshman at Elon, said she thinks Ruckus is a good idea and that Elon students would use it. Though she uses iTunes to download music, she thinks that those who download music illegally would recognize the benefits of Ruckus.
“I think that if I did use Limewire, I would use [Ruckus] instead,” Qua said. “It sounds like a much more efficient and safer way to download music than doing it illegally.”
Ruckus: The Facts
PROS:
• Free downloads of 2.5 million tracks, 4,000 TV shows and movies
• Don’t have to be on campus to access it
• 100% legal, virus free and
available to anyone who has a valid school e-mail address
• Curbs illegal downloading
CONS:
• Can’t burn to CDs
• Can’t transfer to mp3 players
• Won’t stop all illegal downloading
• User name and login required
Updated September 10, 2008
